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High in Germany's Ore mountains is a small town of fantasy and fairytales, Seiffen is where a lot of the decorations we associate with Christmas started. Angels, candles, snowman, even Santa Claus, in this community of artisans, some folks make wooden Christmas ornaments all year round, and traditional wooden toys unchanged for three centuries. During the holiday season, the town turns into a Christmas market, visited by thousands of people eager to walk away with a piece of tradition.
Authenticity is what is made here, authenticity in the sense that the products here are made the same way they have been made for years. The tradition was passed down through the families, and it still would make these products appealing to families around the world.
Dick Weber can provide it. His family has lived here longer than anyone can remember. His education includes generations of experience, hundreds of years of woodworking. In its earliest days, Seiffen was a center for silver mining. Miners developed this technique to fashion household items from wood and later to create toys for their children. Some of the earliest creations in the town's museum trace Seiffen 's commerce and culture. A cargo ship depicting the long lost silver trade, miners pulling valuable ore to the surface, and the majestic nutcracker immortalized by Tchaikovsky in his Nutcracker suite. This craftsmanship has poetic and practical value. During communist rule, Seiffen was one of the few places where private businesses were allowed to remain in operation because the East German government realized that products here were so finely crafted, so valuable, they could be exported for profit. Even today, unemployment here remains extremely low for the region. Modern factories and automation have led to mass-production, the wood is now cut by machine.
But this work will never lose its personal touch, the artisans of Seiffen know authenticity protected them and provided for them through some of Germany's dark times. And as long as there is Christmas here, the lights will shine.
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artisan n. A skilled manual worker; a craftsperson. 工匠, 有技术的手工劳动者；手艺人
Authenticity n. The quality or condition of being authentic, trustworthy, or genuine.
真实性, 具有真实的，可信赖的及真诚的性质或状态
Nutcracker suite 柴可夫斯基《胡桃夹子》
poeticadj. Characterized by romantic imagery: 诗情画意的，浪漫的以浪漫的意象为特征的
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